OPENING OF NEW CHURCH

Taranaki Daily News, 18 April 1932, Page 5

OPENING OF NEW CHURCH

CEREMONY HELD AT ST. ANDREW’S LARGE GATHERING AT SERVICE MANY MESSAGES OF, GOODWILL 'J’HE new St. Andrew’s Church, New. Plymouth, was opened in the presence’of over 600 people on Saturday. The weather was perfect. . , /The’New Plymouth Highland Pipe Band paraded for the ceremony and played outside the church. Keys were handed to the minister, the Rev. J. D. McLennan Wilson, to the Rev. Professor W. Hewitson, Dunedin, and to Mr. W. L. Thompson, the clerk of works of the building. The minister opened the doors of the church. ■ / Representatives of all creeds attended the opening service, besides Presbyterian ministers and representatives from north, central and-south Taranaki. The church, which seats 450 people, was .soon crowded and many stood in the aisles throughout the service. Over 100 were unable to find room in the church. The service was taken by Professor Hewitson, who preached on the Worship of God. /Regular Sunday services were begun in the new church yesterday.. The services in the morning and the evening were taken by Professor Hewitson. In the afternoon a special service for the combined Sunday Schools and children of the Church was taken by the Rev; J. D. Wilson.

SERVICE INSIDE CHURCH ELEMENTS OF TRUE WORSHIP. SERMON BY PROFESSOR HEWITSON. After the doors had been opened by the minister the congregation entered, singing Psalm 100. Scripture was read wi.th the congregation still standing. The prayer of; invocation followed and afterwards .the choir, under Mr. W. L. Hay, led the singing of the Lord’s Prayer. Scripture lessons in the Old and New Testa,ments'were read by the moderator of . the Taranaki Presbytery, the Rev. A. W. Smail. The congregation recited the Apostles Creed and sang a hymn. After the .‘prayer of dedication ; by Professor Hewitson and a hymn, Mr. Wilson read congratulatory messages. An anthem was sung by the choir while the offering was'received. After the dedication of the offering th.e sermon was given by Professor Hewitson. They had met for the dedication of that liouse' to the worship of God, said Professor Hewitson, and he wished to say something of the nature of that worship. It was exemplified in the worship the seraphim in the holy temple and in the worship of the prophet Isaiah. There were three elements in the worship of the seraphim and the worship of the prophet Isaiah which entered into the true worship of God. The first was the element of reverence. All- who worshipped God truly worshipped Him reverently; The seraphim in the temple had covered their faces lest they should see God, and so had expressed reverence. Reverence was a feeling that accompanied the perception of superior worth. As the superiority increased the rever-, ence deepened into solemnity, into awe, into fear, into dread. In the liturgy, were the words, "Give us a heart to loveand dread Thee.” UNKNOWN,. UNKNOWABLE. What were the causes, he asked, that inspired the feeling? There was first of - all suggested something that was mysterious about the Divine nature, something unknown and unknowable. They would remember that the cloud filled the temple and God was hidden in the cloud. There was an essential reverence and religious agnosticism concerning the Divine. That unknowableness of God was expressed not only by the cloud which filled the temple but also in the way the revelation was made. The gospels had given no direct description of Christ. They had described him by . the indirect method, by telling the effect of His manifestation on the bystandeis. Through those descriptions—; of amazement and of astonishment —one learned the majesty of the power that was in Him. It was the’ mystery, the unknown and unknowableness of God that produced reverence.. There was reverence, too, in the idea that God was the King of Hosts. God had ruled over Israel and Palestine and over the world. He was the sovereign power. The'third thing that caused reverence was the' holiness of God. -That was an aspect of the Divine nature which the writers of the gospel emphasised — •‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” “This feeling of reverence springs from I the perception of infinitely superior worth, expressing itself in appropriate/ words and actions,” said Professor Hewitson. “One of the grievous things about our religious life is that it lacks this reverence. We speak of God as if he were a familiar. We are apt to loses in our modern days, when so much is spoken of the love and clemency of God, that reverence that the seraphim, the prophet Isaiah and the old Highlanders had-.for God. SOMETHING TO LEARN. "I am now speaking to those of the Presbyterian ■ faith,” said Professor Hewitson. “We have a good deal to learn in our expression of reverence from some of our sister churches, whose members do not sit bolt upright in their pews gazing all about them while God is being prayed to. 1 am sure that much of our Presbyterian worship is impoverished by a lack of that reverence.” With true reverence in worship, he continued, there must be humility. Humility was the feeling that accompanied the’ perception of personal inferiority, Where there was reverence towards another there would necessarily be humility towards oneself. They would have noticed that the men who had most knowledge had the greatest sense of their ignorance. The person who was conceited was invariably the person who knew little. As reverence increased, so did humility. There was another element in worship—the willingness to serve. Out of reverence came humility and out of humility came service. They would remember that Peter said “Gird yourselves”—not with strength—“with humility to serve.” They must carry that out of the church into their homes and their lives.- ■ How many a boy had not been helped by a psalm singing father! Christ had said, “Inasmuch as ye have done

it unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me.” “Oh, it will not bo any good coining here into this beautiful church unless you remember the elements of worship,” said Professor Hewitson. Let them say with Isaiah: “Here am I; send me.”

Prayer followed the close of the sermon and the congregation sang a hymn. Professor Hewitson pronounced the benediction. At the close of the service, the women of the congregation served afternoon tea at the old church hall. CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES DOMINION-WIDE GOOD WISHES. CONSUMMATION OF FINE WORK. On behalf of the whole church the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Very Rev. Adam Begg, M.A., conveyed congratulations to St. Andrew’s congregation on the consummation of their fine effort, A House of God, worthy of the church and worthy of the town, had been erected — a house that was love’s offering at its very best, for the fostering of Christian worship, for the winning of souls, and for the glory of God,wrote: Let the time, of rejoicing be th'e beginning of a new era in the hitory of the congregation.

Behind were the prayers and the achievements of the pioneers, and their successors, of all who had prepared the way for the larger service that was now possible. Let them never cease to give thanks to God for them, and remember, that for them the opportunity had come to carry on in the spirit of the very best of them, and to make the new church the centre of a living spiritual movement that would tell powerfully for God in the life of New Plymouth. Let not the enthusiasm of that important celebration evaporate in a day or two. Let it be but the beginning of a united effort, which, commencing that day, would continue through the years and give to the Presbyterian Church in New Plymouth a pre-eminence in service that would stimulate their brethren far and near to play the man for their country and their God. “Take ye no rest and .give Him no rest,” concluded the Moderator. “Until y's have built Jerusalem in Taranaki’s green and pleasant land.” \ LORD BLEDISLOE’S INTEREST. His Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, wrote to the minister from Government House, Wellington, as follows; My military secretary has handed me your letter expressing your great regret and that of the Presbyterian community of New Plymouth at my inability to be present at the opening and dedication of St. Andrew’s Church. I should like you and your church people to be fully' assured that . I regret as profoundly as you do that circumstances beyond my own control have repeatedly stood in the way of my visiting New Plymouth in connection with the erection of your new r church. The only illness from which I have suffered since I came to New Zea- | land unfortunately occurred last win- I ter on the eve of my fulfilling my engagement to lay the foundation stone i of the church, and now an unexpected emergency session of Parliament in- i volving issues of profound importance - to the future of this Dominion entirely prevents me going so far afield as New Plymouth during the next fortnight. “You as minister of the new church, as well as its officials and congregation, have the most earnest good wishes of Lady’ Bledisloe and myself for the future activities of the Presbyterian community in New Plymouth, and we trust that the fine ecclesiastical structure which will be dedicated will be the starting point of fresh zeal and impetus in carrying the joyful message of the Christian faith in these somewhat depressed times to the numerous persons of all’ classes in your attractive borough, to whom it should afford the < latest comfort, encouragement . end hope for the years that lie before you. No one recognises more fully than we do the splendid work in the highest interests of the Dominion which is being carried on by the Presbyterian community in every par.t of this country.” The only two former ministers of the New Plymouth church surviving, the Rev. Isaac Jolly (1884) and the Rev. Thos. Roseveare (1911—1917), sent mes- | sages to the church. FORTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO. “It is now 48 years since I went to the New Plymouth Presbyterian Church,” wrote Mr. Jolly. “It was the I first piece of work that I did for the i Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. I had recently come from Scotland where, in the city of Glasgow, I had for six years been engaged as a student missionary in connection with the Free i Church of Scotland. Over-work had

brought on a nervous breakdown and I came to New Zealand. I was appointed by the church extension committee for a term to New Plymouth. I went to New Plymouth as a stranger, and there met warm friends, most of whom have since passed to the higher service.

“The first settlers were almost entirely Church of England and Methodist. A few Scottish and North of Ireland settlers had come in, and formed the Presbyterian Church. There had also been a very unfortunate ministerial appointment, with the result that the congregation had been scattered. Mr. William Grant, the later Rev. William Grant, of Gisborne, preceded me as student evangelist, and had done very good work in gathering the people together again, but the congregation was still weak. I look back with thankfulness and pleasure on my year’s stay in New Plymouth. I had Godly men and women around me and the work made progress. But these were the days of small things with the Presbyterian Church in New Plymouth. The cnurch has now come to the days of greater things.” “I feel p >ud,” wrote the Rev. Thos. Roseveare, Papatoetoe, “to have had the privilege and honour of taking some part in the building up of the invisible church and of having been with you at the time of the jubilee of St. An-

drew’s. Many of the friendships then formed are still very dear to me.” The Moderator and presbytery of Taranaki conveyed congratulations on the attainment of a long cherished desire. The -Stratford session ,and congregation stated that it viewed the opening of the new St. Andrew’s as a great forward movement on the pirt of the mother church of Taranaki. The Tarata congregation stated that it had read with interest the aims and ambitions of the new church, which ,under the minister’s leadership should prove a source of inspiration and an example to Presbyterians. Greetings and good wishes were received from many other ministers and congregations. The Rev. A. A. Armstrong, Moderator of the Wellington presbytery, of which New Plymouth used to be a part, wrote rejoicing that the congregation had been able to erect such a handsome and well appointed place of worship. The Wanganui presbytery, which was represented at the service by the Rev. John Paterson and others, sent good wishes, recalling the fact that it was from their presbytery that the first minister, . the Rev. J. Thorn, came pioneering in Taranaki. Messages were received from the ministers of other congregations in New Plymouth, from Archdeacon F. G. Evans, Archdeacon Gavin, the Rev. Fordham Clark, the Rev. Clarence Eaton, the Rev. R. B. Gosnell, the Rev. W. J. Henderson and the Rev. F. A. Parry. Further messages were received from Dr. Merrington, Knox College, Dunedin, the Rev. A. Whitelaw, Te Awamutu, the Rev. D. Macdiarmid, Opotiki, the Rev. D. Calder, Dominion secretary for

the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Rev. H. C. Stuart, Waverley, the Rev. R. Inglis, and from the Postmas-ter-General, the Hon. A. Hamilton, the Mayor of New Plymouth, Mr. H. V. S. Griffiths, Mr. 9. G. Smith, M.P., Dr. Gordon Macdiarmid, Taihape, Mr. A. M. Macdiarmid, Opunake, Mr. P. Thomson, Mayor of Stratford, Mr. Archie Macdiarmid, Eastbourne, Mr.' Frank Findlay, Mr. C. L. Macdiarmid, Hamilton, and the New Plymouth men of Knox College, Dunedin, also from Mrs. Oscar Blundell. ' > . Colonel’ J. McCarroll, D. 5.0., C.M.G., of the old Mounter Rifles, Anzac Division,'sent a message to the minister of crood’ wishes from his old comrades and a personal message to Mr. Wilson: “May your good services overseas be repeated in your present efforts.” Good wishes were sent also from Major D. Munro, Waikato Regiment.